


The little things

by Nickie



Category: One Piece
Genre: Eventual Romance, Fluff and Humor, M/M, i really don't know how to tag this one, maybe???, oblivious idiots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 09:09:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18465874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nickie/pseuds/Nickie
Summary: Zoro can’t pinpoint the exact moment when he started paying closer attention to Sanji. All of a sudden he became aware of things he’d never noticed before.





	The little things

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know what this one is going to be. i created it as a dump for shorter and lighter chapters that don't require much thinking on my part and can help me to just keep on writing when i don't feel like working on my other stories. so get ready for oblivious idiots in love and lots of disaster (we're talking about zosan here after all).

Zoro can’t pinpoint the exact moment when he started paying closer attention to Sanji. All of a sudden he became aware of things he’d never noticed before.

Like right now when he is watching Sanji collecting their clothes from the washing line outside. Normally, he doesn’t care about changing clothes at all. If it wasn’t for Sanji’s nagging comments about him stinking like a wet dog, he wouldn’t change for weeks. He never questioned where his clean clothes appeared from. Zoro just always finds them in his locker, neatly folded and giving off a powdery scent.

His first thought leans more towards Nami and Robin and the possibility that they wash everyone’s clothes. But he can’t see anything belonging to them drying on the washing line, no matter how much he squints his eyes. Besides, he’s sure Nami wouldn’t let their dirty clothes touch her expensive designer pieces.

So he thinks about Franky and Usopp next. Maybe their two handymen constructed a washing machine of sort and hid it somewhere on the ship? Seems unlikely, because the second they finished their new project, everyone with ears would have to listen to them ooh and ah about it for eternity. And Zoro doesn’t recall that (or he slept right through it).

It leaves one last possibility then – one that assumes Sanji washes their clothes himself. Zoro furrows his brow, eyes following the cook that is halfway done with his task, cigarette dangling from his lips. Does that mean Sanji really cares that much about them not smelling like dirty rats? And how is it possible that Zoro never noticed it before?

Having let out a small groan, the swordsman heaves himself up and walks towards Sanji. The cook glances at him briefly before focusing on his job again, teeth biting into the cigarette.

“I’m busy now, mosshead. Come pick up a fight another time” Sanji mumbles and folds Luffy’s pants before placing them on top of the pile in a basket. Zoro stares at it for a while, thinking about how nimbly and without a crease the cook did it. Must be because of how much he treasures his hands, Zoro concludes when his eyes zero in on Sanji’s bony fingers. The blond stops and turns to look at the other man with a scowl. “First you’re blind, now you’re deaf or what?”

“Did you wash those?” Zoro asks and points at the clothes moving gently on the wind. Sanji’s scowl deepens to the point his cigarette barely stays in his mouth.

“Huh? I didn’t, idiot” the cook shows his back to Zoro, hiding his face and the swordsman crosses arms on his chest.

“Then who did it?”

“Are you playing a fucking detective? Here, take it and get lost” Sanji thrusts the basket into Zoro’s arms before he scampers to the galley and disappears. Zoro takes a deep breath of the freshly washed clothes. He turns around and walks to the boys’ quarters, not sure why Sanji acted this particularly pissed.

*** * ***

It’s over a week later when Sanji is busy writing down a recipe for Nami’s newest favourite drink when there’s a knock on the galley’s door. It opens right after, so Sanji knows it’s no one else than the idiot swordsman, so he doesn’t even care to raise his gaze.

“There’s not much booze left. Wait until we hit another island, drunkard” he speaks flatly, eyes never leaving his neat writing. It’s silent for a while and it doesn’t mean anything good. Especially when Zoro speaks next.

“Cook. I need your help”

Sanji finally looks up from his notebook after placing the pen down. The green-haired man’s shirt and upper part of his pants are completely soaked and… is it a pinkish colour? Sanji stands up with a sigh and waves his hand in the general direction of Zoro’s middle.

“What did you do this time? Is it blood?” the cook frowns when the possibility comes to his mind. Zoro holds an unreadable expression, with his lips pressed into a thin line.

“Come” and he’s gone. Sanji drags a hand down his face tiredly but follows Zoro nonetheless. You never know what’s going on in a head full of algae, the cook reminds himself, his exhaustion already peaking. Zoro leads him out and to the lawn, a big wooden barrel in the middle. Sanji grows suspicious when noticing some clothes strewn across the grass.

“What is this?” a cigarette appears in his lips and he lights it up, already dreading the answer. Zoro walks to the barrel and looks into it remorsefully. He is contemplating for a bit, just staring into it and Sanji taps his foot impatiently. “So?”

“Wanted to wash clothes” Zoro scratches the side of his head, his other hand pulling something out of the barrel. “Did something wrong though”

Sanji’s cig drops out of his mouth when the swordsman pulls out his yellow shirt out of the barrel. Well, at least it used to be yellow, because now it is stained with blotches of various pink intensity. The cook stares incredulously at that disaster before he jumps to the barrel and pulls out another piece of clothing. One of his again, unfortunately.

“What the hell- How did you even manage to do that, you moron?” Sanji doesn’t know if he’s more angry or impressed. It needs a different kind of stupid to turn clothes pink when simply washing them.

“I don’t know what you’re using” Zoro growls and drops Sanji’s shirt back into the water. The cook fishes it out quickly with a gasp and searches for any other clothes hidden at the bottom of this hellhole. “I found this powder in the kitchen. Smelled fine so I used it” the man shrugs and the blond freezes completely, his arm half deep into the pink water.

“You stole from my kitchen?” Sanji’s eyes are wide with disbelief. He smells the water then and throws a glare Zoro’s way. “A powdered raspberry, really?! Out of all powders you had to choose this one?!”

Sanji whines when looking at his prized shirts and Zoro can only look because he doesn’t understand what the big deal is.

“Can’t you just… Wash it off?”

The cook closes the distance between them and raises his dripping wet shirt up to Zoro’s nose, his own scrunching with a grimace.

“Not after you bathed it in a raspberry soup, swords-for-brains” Sanji’s fuming and raising his foot to maybe kick some sense into that dense head when an important question pops up in his own. He folds the shirt over the barrel and reaches for another cigarette. “Why would you even wash anything? It’s not like you care about hygiene”

Zoro looks away, obviously embarrassed but covering it with a frown. Sanji looks at him carefully while smoking, small puffs of grey floating to join the clouds. The swordsman keeps quiet for a long time, even after Sanji is done with his cig and crashing the butt in between his fingers. Zoro peeks down at other clothes, ones that escaped the horror, before he bends down and starts collecting them.

“I will pay for your clothes, so don’t get all fussy, shitty cook”

The green-haired man’s voice misses the usual spat and Sanji notices. He should kick the annoying marimo out of the ship and to the closest island, but he chooses not to. There will be other opportunities to do so in the future.

“Fine. Just leave washing to me, understood?” Sanji takes his two shirts and spreads them out to calculate the damage. He balls them both just as quickly and directs his steps to the galley. His kitchen can always use two additional cloths, can’t it? The cook throws one last glance towards Zoro before he shakes his head and busies himself with his recipes. There’s no hope for this idiot.

**Author's Note:**

> if you're interested, find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ficnicks)! ♥


End file.
